I am so glad to be done with this project: Last Dance With Mary Jane by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. I had originally bought this yarn back in 2014 and was going to try and improvise a crochet design along the likes of Merging Ripples Shawl by Kyoko Nakayoshi. I had a hard time getting started and ended up putting the project in hibernation.

When I found the pattern, my first thought was the alpaca would be perfect; my only concern being whether or not I had enough yarn. Surely 900 yards would be enough!

Famous last words. My first problem was interpreting the instructions, which I blame for an uneven stitch count encountered after section three. fortunately, there are charts with the pattern, which made the rest of the pattern simpler. The next problem was that I ran out of Yarn A at the last seven double crochets in the second section! I fudged a solution by de-plying a matching acrylic yarn. Next: ! ran out of Yarn B in its second section by one row! Solution: Skipped last row. Lastly, I ran out of yarn before finishing the final row of the border.

My current project – Last Dance With Mary Jane by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – will be a crochet shawl. Coincidentally, it will be in a similar color way to the Erigeneia (by Silke Terhorst) pattern sample. I was going to break my yarns up by sections, by I want to use it all so I think I will just repeat sections until it is gone, reserving the gradient yarn for the border.

Surprisingly, I am finally using the alpaca yarn I bought back in 2014 when my sit ‘n’ knit group went to Alpacas at Windy Hill to support one of our members:

I can’t believe it’s been so long and I am glad to finally have found a crochet pattern for this yarn. I had previously tried to improvise a pattern, but was not happy with my difficulty in maintaining tension with such fine yarn. Today, I seem to have a handle on it. According to the Craft Yarn Council, US hooks B-E are recommended; I am opting for the larger.

I just realized this is my third triangle shawl; I think I will make a concentrated effort to make the next one a crescent or half circle.

Very simple pattern, which I am man enough to admit I was all ready to criticize because I was not a fan of the flat bottom, even while blocking. However, I am here to say that it is most appealing after blocking, revealing a more shallow recess.

My project name – Pineapple Princess by Annette Funicello – was inspired by the date I began, near xmas…Mele Kalikimaka… Anyway, the yarn to me is very medieval grey with a shallow sheen of glitter and flecks of pink and blue. It was a little difficult handling the fine yarn with my old hands, but got through it. Towards the end got a little frustrated with having to frog a couple rows every three rows due to lack of attention; especially considering the fringe afterward, which I hadn’t done in so long, I forgot how time consuming it can be without short cuts. In the long wrong it really pays off. I am glad too, to have mad this with a lace weight yarn versus the aran weight for which the pattern calls.

I think I have enough yarn left to make a knitted shawl, something with a solid stitch pattern…yeah, that’s what I’m’a gonna do!

I finally finished piece one of fifteen last night, despite losing two stitches. You might be able to tell by the slight bowing on the sides. I definitely can tell that my tension at the beginning was looser than it was when I finished, but not significantly, just enough that an experienced crocheter would notice. I spent about 14.25 hours making this, but some of that time was spent frogging mistakes.

This was one of the projects about which I was complaining about a couple of days ago. As of this post, I still have not received a reply from Regina regarding finished sizes. That’s why I am not linking to her pattern.

The project name – Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo – is a selection from my music library.

As Annette cleaned out the office to make room for more yarn at The Knitting Tree, L A, she was also cleaning up her project cue and gave me this cake of Shibui Silk Cloud. I had been very attracted to this yarn and was very gracious for the opportunity to finally work with it, so I decided to gift it back to the store and kick of the charity drive Annette is conducting during the month of October and November to knit/crochet items for donation to an abused women’s shelter.

I just love the color of this yarn. I used the yarn double-stranded and still the scarf is feather-weight. This could be due to the size 13 needles I decided to use. I did make a mistake which I wanted to fix and despite the big needle size, the hair still caught on each other, but with a little perseverance and patience, I managed to get back to the hole, fix it and resume.

The name – Wave by Oscar Peterson – is a random selection from my music library.

The Yarnover Truck was parked outside The Knitting Tree, L A today. I got to meet the proprietors before my shift started: Maridee and Barbra, whom I found very charming and pleasant. Using yesterday’s rationalization that I am supporting small businesses, I decided to venture out and see what I had to purchase from them.

The truck is very well organized and clean. I had heard previously that it was very hot in the truck. Fortunately for me, it was a cooler day and I did not suffer much from the inner temperatures. Of course, the first yarn that caught my attention was yarn that The Knitting Tree, L A was already selling, but in different colors. One orange yarn really caught my attention, but fortunately there was only one skein. And then I saw it: Indigodragonfly MerGoat Lace (Fiber Content: 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10 % nylon; Yarn Weight: 1, heavy lace-light fingering). It was very similar to the Madelinetosh Merino Light that I was prohibited from purchasing yesterday at Gather DTLA. When I saw the yarn color name – Paging Dr. Smart-Ass – I knew it was meant to be mine.

This was my practice attempt at a design inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. It provided an opportunity for me to finish the cone of eyelash yarn I had, though I still have a smidgen of it left. I stopped working on this to work on Halcyon + On + On Wrap because my decision to be precise with the eyelash yarn and avoid looping was becoming very tedious. Not visible in the image above are some iridescent fibers the reflect prismatic color.